STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – The holiday weekend wasn’t all smooth sailing for ex-Penn State defensive coordinator Bob Shoop. The university filed a lawsuit against him in June, as was made public this week.
Shoop, who left Penn State in January of 2016 after two seasons as the team’s defensive coordinator to take on the same role with the University of Tennessee, was responsible for his contract buyout, which per court documents was 50 percent of his base salary for the remaining term of the contract, a total expense of $891,865.
The surprise wasn’t that there was a hefty buyout involved, after all Shoop was the fourth highest-paid employee at Penn State in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2016, it was that Shoop was apparently handling the buyout on his own. At the time of Shoop's hiring at Tennessee in 2016 he became the highest-paid assistant coach in Tennessee history with a salary of $1.15 million per year as part of a three-year deal.
According to court documents, Penn State requested in writing that Shoop make the buyout payment per the terms of his Penn State contract, but that he has not. Per court documents, Shoop hasn’t made any payment and Penn State said he has “indicated a refusal to make such payment.”
So, where in the world is this thing headed?
Well, lofty contract buyouts are anything but rare in college football these days, usually with head coaches in some cases collecting more money by not coaching after being fired because of their buyout. Charlie Weis, who was fired in 2009, collected a whopping $18.97 million from Notre Dame because of his buyout. Weis received his final payment two months ago.
Typically, assistant coaches and coordinators, who unlike head coaches many assistants usually don’t crack the $1 million mark for a base salary, have some sort of buyout in their contract. At the time of his hiring, Shoop’s salary made him the fifth-highest-paid assistant coach in the SEC, per USA Today’s coaching salary database. The year before Penn State gave him a salary bump while LSU showed interest in Shoop.
The interesting part about Shoop’s buyout first includes one quote from the time he was hired by Tennesse. What was once thought to be a potential sticking point in contract negotiations because of the buyout, wasn’t. Former Tennessee defensive coordinator John Jancek, the last coordinator before Shoop, made $520,000 per year with the Vols.
“It’s a very, very loud statement about how bad Bob wanted to be a part of what is going on here in our football program,” Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart told GoVols247 about the buyout at the time. “He was willing to handle that, and we were able to move forward then in a very rapid fashion to try to get something, which we were able to do.”
But, interestingly enough, the language in the suit brings up a reason to wonder why maybe this buyout wasn’t such an issue for Shoop when he left Penn State.
It’s no secret Shoop had aspirations of again becoming a head coach, a job he previously held at Columbia, but instead the Volunteers plummeted last season, finishing 9-4 after a strong start. That didn't give him an opportunity to go elsewhere should he have desired to do so.
If Shoop would have become a head coach within one year of breaking his Penn State contract then per court documents that $891,865 buyout would’ve been a moot point.
Maybe Shoop was banking on a head coaching gig within a year elsewhere?
Given the track record of his defenses up until that point, including ones at Penn State that ranked No. 2 and No. 14 in the nation, it wouldn’t have been much of a surprise. However, this clause has to be a kick in the gut for a coordinator whose team went 9-4 last season while his old team won the Big Ten and played in the Rose Bowl. So it goes.
“Under the terms of his employment contract with Penn State, Coach Shoop is obligated to make a liquidated damages payment to the University resulting from the termination by Coach Shoop of his employment prior to the end of the contract term,” Penn State said in a statement issued Tuesday. “We are filing suit against him to recover this mutually agreed upon amount.”
While the suit will go on and we’ll have to see if and how much it gets settled for and if Tennessee will opt to step up and help pay or not, Shoop’s oldest son remains on the Penn State football team as a walk-on wide receiver.
Tyler Shoop enters his third season with the Nittany Lions, the place where he opted to stay and continue his career in Happy Valley while the school he pays money to attend sues his father over a contract buyout. That’s not awkward at all, right?
In the world of contract buyouts and coaching changes surely this is just another one of those strange deals that plays out publicly, but surely other coordinators around the country are keeping an eye on it and thinking about their own buyouts.